Bain finds liquidity pressure rising as private equity capital cycles grow

After a year of bigger deals and rising exits, private equity is moving into 2026 with momentum, though Bain’s Global Private Equity Report 2026 highlights liquidity as a growing focus as investors wait for capital to be returned.

Beneath the rebound in activity, however, the report points to a structural tension shaping the market: Value creation is improving, but the recycling of capital remains slow. Investors continue to hold significant unrealized gains while waiting for distributions, a dynamic that Bain says is influencing fundraising, exit strategies and how sponsors measure performance across their portfolios. READ MORE

The global M&A boom is rolling into 2026 as AI sparks deal frenzy — but cash is getting tight

The global mergers and acquisitions boom that defined 2025 is carrying into 2026, as companies reassess their portfolios and artificial intelligence-led demand fuels large-scale transactions. However, a tightening capital pool is forcing executives to be more selective than ever.

Despite a sluggish start as Trump’s sweeping tariffs early last year briefly scuttled acquisitions and new public listings, the total value of deal-making activity surged nearly 40% to a record of $4.9 trillion in 2025 READ MORE

Private credit in emerging markets surges to record

Investors ploughed a record $22.3 billion of private credit into emerging markets last year, according to data released on Wednesday, amid banks tightening their lending and wobbles in traditionally ​safe markets.

The total is nearly 40% higher than the previous record ‌in 2016, according to the data from the Global Private Capital Association, and provides a window into the private credit pivot into emerging markets as returns on Western projects tighten – and concerns over defaults rise. READ MORE

A Venture Firm’s A-Native Reset

My last post asked, “How would you start your company today from scratch in an ai native world?”. Today I’ll answer it for myself, as a Venture Capitalist (VC).

Because the uncomfortable truth is: VCs often ask founders to adapt much faster than we do. That won’t work anymore.

Harlem Capital is a decade in. We are in a different era with new rules. So we spent three days in a house with one goal: disrupt ourselves. In venture three things matter: sourcing, winning and adding value. We are focused on sourcing because in an ai era, people are the moats. READ MORE

Private Equity Returns Hit 17-Year Low Amid Tariff Troubles

Last year was not an especially good one for the private equity (PE) space.

As Bloomberg News reported Monday (Feb. 23), PE firms returned fewer profits to their investors for the fourth consecutive year, with the industry sitting on $3.8 trillion in unsold assets, and struggling to raise cash for new funds.

Distributions as a percentage of net asset value remained at 14% for 2025, which was the second-lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis, the report said, citing data from Bain & Co. In addition, this rut has persisted for longer than what PE firms faced 17 years ago. READ MORE

Private equity resurgence gathers steam as new era challenges firms to enhance value creation

A resurgence in global private equity is gathering steam after a rebound in dealmaking last year that saw both buyout deals and exits surge ahead to register their second highest values on record. After three prior years in the relative doldrums, the advances mark a turning point for PE and set the stage for a continuing revival in 2026 and beyond, Bain & Company's 17th annual Global PE Report, released today, concludes.

But Bain's analysis tempers this upbeat message on brightening prospects, with a caution that the maturing PE industry has reached a critical inflection point. PE firms confront greatly heightened competition for capital as well as intensified investor demands for high performance – even as they continue to contend with a series of stubborn industry challenges, today's report warns. READ MORE

Private Equity Outlook 2026: Gaining Traction

After three years in the relative doldrums, private equity finally started to build some momentum in 2025. The gains were mixed and propelled by a narrow swath of headline deals. But the industry’s recovery appears to be gaining traction as more general partners (GPs) shake off economic uncertainty and valuation qualms to put more money to work and speed up distributions to investors READ MORE

Why venture-backed startups are booking risk-management speakers before their first crisis

Risk awareness is a very important aspect of success in the universe of venture capital and startup growth. This is because risk is always present, which is why startups need to be able to deal with them as effectively as possible so that they won’t end up hindering long-term growth and success.

Startups that focus on risk management are not doing so reactively. Instead, they are doing it as part of their strategic move towards securing the stability of their businesses. This is why a lot of venture-backed startups these days invest in everything from experienced risk management speakers to training that will help them deal with risks more effectively. This shift is a result of the realisation that preparedness is what defines a business that endures in today’s highly competitive marketplace. READ MORE

Venture Capital Funds the New Space Race

In 2025, the 25 largest venture capital deals closed by Southern California companies raised a staggering $8.85 billion, with the majority of those funds going to aerospace and defense startups. These companies capitalized on the growth of the space economy as well as the current administration’s desire to build a national defense system for the next generation of warfare. Other companies raising significant funds included tech, life sciences and nuclear energy generation startups. READ MORE

VC Emerging Opportunities

Our annual VC Emerging Opportunities report provides quantitative data for investors to stay on top of quickly shifting VC trends. The report includes both bottom-up and top-down analyses of 11 select analyst-covered verticals, from AI to agtech, gaming, and more.

SaaS companies continue to be a positive standout, with very high exit probabilities calculated by our VC Exit Predictor and several early-stage investment opportunities. The report predicts underperformance from agtech, gaming, and healthtech, with individual analyses included for all 11 verticals in the report. READ MORE

Quantonation’s double-sized second fund shows quantum still has believers

Quantum computing will not be replacing supercomputers in 2026, let alone reaching industrial scale. And yet, investor appetite for companies pursuing the elusive quantum advantage hasn’t dwindled — it has increased.

Quantonation Ventures, a venture firm investing in quantum and physics-based startups, has closed its oversubscribed second fund at €220 million, or approximately $260 million. That’s more than twice the size of its inaugural fund, and comes in addition to other signals that the quantum winter isn’t coming yet. READ MORE

Why the fund math for Series A venture firms keeps getting trickier

Benchmark made a rare addition to its highly successful partnership this week: investor and entrepreneur—and brother of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—Jack Altman.

As such, Altman’s job will now be all about leading Series A financings into startups—a stage he said he loves, “when there’s enough going on that an investor can be useful but not so much that you can’t have an impact.” But the Series A math for a boutique firm like Benchmark has become trickier over the years. READ MORE

The AI Boom Has Drastically Changed Who’s Funding The Hottest Companies In 2025 Vs. 2021

As global venture funding in 2025 ratcheted up to the third-highest total on record after the peak years of 2021 and 2022, capital also concentrated further, with the number of companies raising rounds of $50 million or more drastically shrinking roughly by half to a cohort of just 1,440.

The investors backing the hottest companies in this highly competitive venture capital market have also changed drastically since 2021, Crunchbase data shows. While private equity investors dominated during the pandemic boom, Silicon Valley’s traditional VC firms have reclaimed ground in leading rounds of $50 million and over, our analysis indicates. READ MORE

Capital-Intensive 'Coconut' Rounds Upend the Traditional Venture Funding Model

Last week, Thomas Dohmke, the former CEO of GitHub, announced a $60 million seed round and a $300 million valuation for his new startup Entire, a developer platform focused on AI-generated code. By the standards of today’s AI market, that’s considered restrained.

Dohmke initially floated a $50 million raise to Madrona Ventures’ managing director S. “Soma” Somasegar — once the head of his division at Microsoft — who suggested a $250 million valuation. Dohmke said he would come back after testing the market, Somasegar told me. READ MORE

The VC bulls defying VC conventions by driving nuclear fusion tech

Nuclear fusion has captured Silicon Valley's imagination, even as investments in the technology break every venture capital norm. A cohort of investors—a combination of ultra-wealthy individuals and deep-pocketed firms—enthusiastic about the promise of fusion energy is pouring more capital into its commercialization than ever. And that's despite the fact that it's still several scientific discoveries away from being a realistic option for the energy grid. READ MORE

J.P. Morgan report finds family offices increasing private equity allocations as succession planning gaps persist

J.P. Morgan Private Bank releases its 2026 Global Family Office Report, revealing that while single family offices are professionalising, significant gaps in succession planning and risk management remain.

The report, which surveyed 333 family offices across 30 countries, finds that 37 per cent of respondents plan to increase their private equity allocations over the next 12 to 18 months. This comes despite 86 per cent of family offices globally admitting they still lack a clear succession plan for key decision-makers. READ MORE